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Duck Season review
:. Director: Fernando Eimbcke
:. Starring: Enrique Arreola, Diego Cataño
:. Running Time: 1:30
:. Year: 2004
:. Country: Mexico
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After seeing so many Mexican films about crime or poverty, Duck Season, a comedy about a group of kids letting loose while alone for the weekend, is a good surprise.
For his debut feature, writer/director Fernando Eimbcke has crafted a fine and slightly absurd comedy set in an apartment in a Mexico City project. While 14 year-old friends Flama (Daniel Miranda) and Moko (Diego Cataño) were expecting to spend a quiet weekend of fun, playing video games, the intrusion of Rita (Danny Perea), a burgeoning teenage neighbor asking to use their the oven to cook a pie and Ulises (Enrique Arreola), a pizza delivery man fascinated by ducks, not only interrupts their plans but sets life-changing mechanisms in motion—they will end up experimenting with sex, drugs, and friendship, ultimately questioning their own origin and future.
Shot in black and white and spiced up with smart and funny dialogues flirting with the absurd, at least from the mouth of 14 year-olds, this is bare filmmaking sharp enough to make you totally forget everything is set in an apartment, mostly in the living room, kitchen and bathtub. From the writing to the direction, the ensemble flows fluidly, without a glitch, which is even more impressive for a first work.
In the end credits, you'll certainly notice that the author thanks Jim Jarmusch and it's clear that his cinema owes much to the cult American indie filmmaker—the approach and feel of Down by Law and the more recent Coffee & Cigarettes certainly come to mind. Even though Eimbcke denied it when I asked him, the pizza deliveryman is also, intentionally or not, reminiscent of Roberto Benigni—as a Jarmuschian figure—would it be for his weird behavior or his look (face and glasses.) And this is certainly the film's main—and only—issue as the omnipresent Jarmusch feel dilutes the filmmaker's own voice; he would rather present homage than express his own personality and cinematic style.
Duck Season has garnered several festival awards, including the top prize at the 2004 AFI FEST, here in Hollywood. While it certainly can't match the vibrant and unique experience brought by more daring pictures present here, these accolades can reassure you that this has been a mild season.
Fred Thom
 Movie Reviews: from 1998 to 2011
Movie Reviews since 2012
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